WhatsApp’s Long-Awaited Video Calling Feature Possibly Near

WhatsApp is currently the most popular messaging app, as it is used by over 900 million people. The app is owned by Facebook and despite its popularity, it doesn’t include many features available in other messaging apps. This year, WhatsApp got some very useful features, the first one was a web client, which made it easy to send messages from any browser using the same account. Another feature was the ability to make voice calls to other WhatsApp users, after many months of leaks that showed how this functionality would be implemented, it was finally made official in late March. More recently, users got the chance to back up their conversations on Google Drive.

Now, it has been reported that WhatsApp is working on a video calling feature. The report comes from Germany and it mentions that users will be able to make or take video calls using WiFi or cellular connectivity. It is also mentioned that this feature will be introduced for iOS devices first, opposite to the other two features, that were available to Android devices first. There will be a small and movable window that lets you see what’s being captured by the camera on your device, plus users will be able to switch between the front-facing camera and the one in the back as well as muting the microphone.

The version that contains this functionality is 2.12.16.2 for iOS, while those devices are currently running version 2.12.12, so it might not be too long before we get to see this new feature, at least on iOS devices. Following the design guidelines of iOS, WhatsApp ended up looking kind of dull on those devices, so the report mentions that the app is getting redesigned by including more green elements and a new interface based on tabs. This interface is inspired by the interface that has become quite popular on modern browsers, so users can expect a similar functionality for their conversations. Each conversation will have its own tab so users can switch between different chats without needing to return to the chat list every time. Let’s hope Android devices get updated soon to a new version that includes this functionality as well.